The invention relates to a method of marking an object having a synthetic resin material surface by exposing the surface to a laser beam. The invention also relates to an object having a synthetic resin material surface which has been marked in accordance with the method of the invention.
The method according to the invention may be used for marking objects which have been provided, at least locally, with a synthetic resin material surface or objects which consists wholly of a synthetic resin material. An example of objects which consist of synthetic resin material are the housings for electronic components such as capacitors etc. Housings of this type are marked with, inter alia, a type designation.
Marking synthetic resin material objects by means of laser beams is described in the periodical laser Focus, July 1975, page 28 "Fast laser pulser can etch a pattern in a moving part on a production line".
In accordance with this known method synthetic resin material objects which are composed of at least two layers of synthetic resin material of a different colour are exposed to a laser beam, the upper layer of the two layers of synthetic resin material being locally removed in accordance with a desired marking pattern. As a result thereof the second layer of the synthetic material layers is locally exposed.
In this known method it is a requirement for the synthetic resin material object to be composed of at least two synthetic resin materials of different colours.